Welcome to my blog! Let me tell you a little bit about myself, and The Lavender Lunchbox. I am a foodie: a true flavor-loving, wine tasting, food-pairing foodie. I by no means claim connoisseurship, but I have certainly learned a thing or two over my years spent working in many a fine food establishment and obsessing over cookbooks and the Food Network.

Lesson #1 from my years waiting tables: I love food! Food and all things food-related are my driving passion.

I grew up here in Charlotte, NC fortunate enough from a young age to try a range of eclectic foods. I have a giant Irish Catholic family (my mother and her 8 siblings, and my now 17 cousins), so it was often easier to dine out for celebrations than to make it a huge load-bearing spread. What I love about the celebrations we had growing up is that my grandfather always insisted we dine somewhere culturally defined. Thai food, Chinese, Italian...these were Charlotte’s ethnic food offerings in the early 90s. And my absolute favorite food memory? My grandfather took me to sushi for my 10th birthday. I will never forget the taste of my first bite of sushi.

But through life’s experience of being a young person trying to “figure it all out,” I learned soon after college that I hadn’t yet branched into an economic status that allowed me to dine out often. And so by default, I learned to cook! Interestingly, I first learned to enjoy cooking during a 1-month experiment when my closest friend and I decided to go vegan. We knew we had to cook for ourselves (we were in Charlotte, where the vegan offerings are limited), and hence we decided to cook for our friends as well.

Lesson #2 from my years burning broccoli: I love bringing people together around food. People are my passion as well!

And lastly, I learned that part of loving people includes loving oneself. I started really paying attention to what makes me feel good, and the bottom line is simple...PLANTS make me feel amazing. I now love veggies so much. I just can't get enough!

The Lavender Lunchbox is just one way I intend to share with you my love of beautiful food and beautiful people.